Family Stories 4
Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or email .
You can search our online catalogue and add titles directly to your wishlist by visiting www.rniblibrary.com. You can log onto your account in the My library section with your customer number and pin number. These can be obtained from Helpline.
For any further help in selecting books please contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 5333 or email .
Ackroyd, Peter
English music. 1992. Read by Tom Crowe, 14 hours 57 minutes. TB 9851.
To a small audience of the susceptible and curious, Clement Harcombe and his son Timothy perform acts of healing through contact with the spirits of the dead. For Timothy, motherless with extraordinary psychic gifts, it is an unorthodox but secure apprenticeship; for others it is a wayward existence with a suspect parent, and he is removed to the security of his grandparents' home. Wandering in his world of literary visions, Timothy comes to understand the power of the author over his characters, the painter over what is perceived and the composer over what is heard; a most unusual education. TB 9851.
Anand, Valerie
The ruthless yeoman. 1991. Read by Josephine Tewson, 18 hours 33 minutes. TB 10530.
Bridges over time series; book 2. Sequel to: The proud villeins, TB 10307. Isabel of Northfield knows that free blood flows in the family's veins and determines to better herself, but her plans to improve her lot by entering the church do not succeed and her love affair with a man far her social superior is doomed to fail. Yet, when she dies in servitude, her vision of liberty does not die with her, for her kinswoman Nicola inherits her dreams. Nicola marries the violent and ambitious Thomas Woodcarver who, as Black Death strikes, sees the chance to drag his family out of serfdom. TB 10530.
Archer, Jeffrey
Only time will tell. 2011. Read by Roger Allam, Read by Emilia Fox, 12 hours 36 minutes. TB 19160.
The Clifton chronicles; book 1. The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the chilling words, 'I was told that my father was killed in the war'. But it will be another 20 years before Harry discovers how his father really died, which will only lead him to question: who was his father? TB 19160.
Archer, Jeffrey
The sins of the father. 2012. Read by Alex Jennings and Emilia Fox, 10 hours 6 minutes. TB 19795.
The Clifton chronicles; book 2. In Jeffrey Archer's epic novel, family loyalties are stretched to their limits as secrets unravel, and the story moves from the backstreets of Bristol to the boardrooms of Manhattan. Join the great storyteller on a journey where there are no stop signs, no cul-de-sacs and no dead ends. TB 19795.
Baker, Anne
All that glistens. 2009. Read by Anne Dover, 12 hours 20 minutes. TB 19052.
When jeweller Edwin Jardine gives a job to Hilda Thorpe, his daughter Jane suspects that he's been blinded by the widow's good looks. Jane knows her father deserves happiness again after the death of her mother, but must it be with Hilda? With the help of her fiance, Nick, Jane unravels the shocking truth about Hilda's past. TB 19052.
Banks, Lynne Reid
Two is lonely. 1974. Read by Lynne Reid Banks, 9 hours 15. TB 3620.
Jane Graham series; book 3. Sequel to: The backward shadow, TB 3571. Jane, worried by the effect that her failure to marry is having on her eight-year-old son, becomes involved again with the boy's father, with her first love Toby, and with Andy, the friend who is always close at hand. TB 3620.
Barstow, Stan
A kind of loving. 1960. Read by Stephen Thorne, 9 hours 13 minutes. TB 7759.
The Vic Brown trilogy; book 1. On the surface, this tells the story of Vic Brown's physical infatuation with Ingrid. However, mixed in with the spice of a young wife and a rich supply of northern characters is the tragedy of a marriage which becomes a sham. As Vic tells his own tale there are crisis points and moments of great humour. A powerful tale of love and hate, set in the equally absorbing West Riding communities with which the author is so familiar. TB 7759.
Bates, H E
Oh! To be in England. 1963. Read by Raymond Anderson, 4 hours 30 minutes. TB 7147.
The Larkins series; book 4. Sequel to: When the green woods laugh, TB 7056. To be in England seems a good idea with Pop clinching a deal for two suits of armour, a butter churn, three regency chamber pots - with pink roses - and a load of other junk; with all the younger Larkins being taken to the bosom of the Church at a mass baptism - with marquee and private fair-ground - and above all, with the Reverend Candy locking a half-Nelson on an unwelcome visitor. TB 7147.
Bawden, Nina
Familiar passions. 1979. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 6 hours 15 minutes. TB 3477.
Bridie's husband leaves her. The new insecurity makes her think about her adoption and seek out her natural parents, in order to find out about her background and to face the future. TB 3477.
Baxter, Lily
The girls in blue. 2012. Read by Anna Harwich, 12 hours 30 minutes. TB 20076.
When her home is destroyed in a bombing raid over London, Miranda Beddoes is forced to take refuge with her grandparents down on the Dorset coast. With both her parents doing their duty for king and country, Miranda longs to do the same. She joins the WAAF and is soon working hard to help win the war. Despite her determination to dedicate herself to her work, Miranda falls for charismatic fighter pilot Gil Maddern - a man known for his recklessness and passion for flying. As the battle rages in the skies above them and she learns that Gil's plane has been hit, it is only the friendship of her fellow girls in blue that keeps Miranda going as she waits for news. TB 20076.
Baxter, Lily
Spitfire girl. 2011. Read by Anna Harwich, 12 hours 37 minutes. TB 19381.
It is 1940 and 18 year-old Susan longs to do her duty. Her secret ambition is to learn to fly. She meets Tony, a flying instructor, and friendship blossoms into love. Susan is forced to flee London and is taken in by a kindly innkeeper. She then receives news that Tony is missing in action. Will she realise her dreams of love and flying? TB 19381.
Bennett, Anne
A daughter's secret. 2008. Read by Madeleine Brolly, 14 hours 50 minutes. TB 19943.
From the author of 'Mother's Only Child', 'Danny Boy' and 'Daughter of Mine', this is a moving and gritty saga of loss, separation and finally hope, as a young girl is forced to leave her home and survive in the backstreets of Birmingham. TB 19943.
Bennett, Anne
Far from home. 2012. Read by Candida Gubbins, 13 hours 50 minutes. TB 19674.
Kate is only 16 when she is sent to live in Birmingham with her friend Susie. Kate is harbouring a secret - a deep passion for her cousin, Tim, back home in Ireland. When WWII breaks out, the girls volunteer as Air Raid Protection Volunteers. But while war wages all around them, Kate makes a discovery that rocks her to her very core. TB 19674.
Bentley, Phyllis
Ring in the new. 1969. Read by Stephen Jack, 5 hours 15 minutes. TB 1193.
Tales of the West Riding series; book 19. Sequel to: A man of his time, TB 320. Chuff, now managing director of Syke Mill, battles with a takeover; his cousin Jonathan, now a university lecturer, is accidentally involved in a student demonstration; and both learn to live with the changes brought by the contemporary scene. TB 1193.
Bingham, Charlotte
Daughters of Eden. 2005. Read by Kim Hicks, 13 hours 38 minutes. TB 19973.
Focuses on the lives and fortunes of four young women at the outbreak of the Second World War. Marjorie, left at a boarding school by her emigrating mother; plain Poppy, pushed into marriage with a mean-spirited aristocrat; Kate, despised by her father, but determined to prove herself; and man-mad Lily, who turns out to be the bravest of them all. TB 19973.
Bingham, Charlotte
The love knot. 2012. Read by Judy Bennett, 13 hours 25 minutes. TB 19388.
This romantic novel follows the fortunes of three very different young women who are in love in Victorian times. That all three determine on making their own way at a time when to be independent was to risk social ostracism, is partly due to the influence each comes to have on the others' lives. TB 19388.
Blair, Emma
Half hidden. 2012. Read by Leonie Mellinger, 12 hours 31 minutes. TB 19389.
Holly's fiance is killed at Dunkirk and she throws all her energy into her nursing skills, convinced that she will never love again. When she meets Dr Peter Schmidt she finds that not all Germans are awful. But then typhoid strikes. TB 19389.
Bradford, Barbara Taylor
Being Elizabeth. 2009. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 13 hours 55 minutes. TB 19391.
House of Deravenel series; book 3. Sequel to: Heirs of Ravenscar, TB 16070. Elizabeth Turner, scion of the fabled Deravenel family, carries the red-gold hair and beautiful English complexion of her ancestors. And it is not just her colouring that she has inherited from Edward Deravenel. Astute and charismatic, she is also bold, daring and fiercely ambitious, with the same ruthless streak. Now, aged just twenty-five, she stands in the position she has dreamed of - inheriting the family business, Deravenels. Over eight hundred years old, the company is a bastion of male chauvinism and the challenge that lies ahead of Elizabeth is immense. She also has to cope with the enmity of her cousin Mary who misguidedly believes she is the rightful heir. TB 19391.
Bradshaw, Rita
Alone beneath the heaven. 1998. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 13 hours 35 minutes. TB 19657.
As a child Sarah Brown was abandoned and grew up in a Sunderland orphanage run by a cruel matron. Sarah goes to London to enter service but her new master is a rapist and terrible violence ensues. She is driven to unravel the mysteries of her past. TB 19657.
Bragg, Melvyn
The hired man. 1973. Read by Stephen Jack, 8 hours 50 minutes. TB 1177.
Tallentire family series; book 1. A historical novel, by an author with a real feeling for the life and scenes of the country, about an agricultural labourer from the time of his marriage and offering of himself for hire in 1898 at a Cumberland market. TB 1177.
Bragg, Melvyn
The soldier's return. 1999. Read by Stephen Thorne, 9 hours 40 minutes. TB 13233.
The soldier's return series; book 1. When Sam Richardson returns from World War II to Wigton in Cumbria, he finds little has changed, as far as his own limited prospects go. In his absence, though, his young family has changed immensely, and Sam struggles to adjust to life in peacetime. TB 13233.
Buck, Pearl S
The good earth. 2005. Read by Di Langford, 11 hours 7 minutes. TB 18564.
When O-lan, a servant girl, marries the peasant Wang Lung, she toils tirelessly through four pregnancies for their family's survival. Reward at first is meagre, but there is sustenance in the land - until the famine comes. Half-starved, the family joins thousands of peasants to beg on the city streets. It seems that all is lost, until O-lan's desperate will to survive returns them home with undreamt of wealth. But they have betrayed the earth from which true wealth springs, and the family's money breeds only mistrust, deception - and heartbreak for the woman who had saved them. TB 18564.
Byatt, A S
The virgin in the garden. 1978. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 22 hours 56 minutes. TB 6539.
Frederica series; book 1. The date is 1953 and the scene is variously a public school, an Elizabethan country house, and the north Yorkshire coast. Poetic dramatist Alexander Wedderburn, agnostic Bill Potter, and Lucas Simmonds, a Biology master with curious cosmological views, all teach at the school. Events centre on the wedding of Bill's daughter to a fat and fanatical curate; an alarming religious experiment conducted by Lucas and Bill's son; and the staging of a drama about Elizabeth 1. TB 6539.
Caldwell, Taylor
Captains and the kings. 1973. Read by Marvin Kane, 19 hours. TB 2195.
This story concerns an Irish immigrant family's adventures in America from the mid-1850s through the early 1900s. TB 2195.
Carr, Philippa
The Pool of St. Branok. 1987. Read by Rosemary Davis, 17 hours 32 minutes. TB 7892.
The daughters of England series; book 14. Sequel to: Midsummer's' Eve, TB 9653. A further novel in the "Daughters of England" saga, this story centres on Angelet, born and raised in Cornwall, whose fascinating journey through life and across the world starts with a strange encounter at the Pool of Branok. Angelet's adventures are grippingly related from the delights of the London debutante season to the deprivations of the Australian goldfields. TB 7892.
Clayton, Sylvia
Friends and Romans. 1975. Read by Carol Marsh, 7 hours 20 minutes. TB 3023.
Emma meets her film-director father for the first time when she is 21; but the bond between them is strong, and she understands only too well that he is heading for disaster. TB 3023.
Cleary, Jon
The Beaufort sisters. 1979. Read by Carmen Lynne, 18 hours 46 minutes. TB 8449.
This is the story of four sisters, the beautiful and wilful daughters of Lucas Beaufort, the richest man in Kansas City. The theme is about the dangers as well as the pleasures of being rich. Building his story like a mosaic, time and events at last bringing all the pieces together, Jon Cleary tells the story of the loves and marriages of Nina, Margaret Sally and Prue, each independent-minded yet at the same time tied emotionally to her sisters. TB 8449.